Areas northwest of Las Vegas to be under fire watch

By Dave Toplikar

Monday, Aug. 3, 2009 | 7:20 a.m.

More hot and dry weather continues this week for the Las Vegas Valley, with temperatures climbing to 106 degrees today, according to the National Weather Service.

And the heat, low humidity and strong winds are creating weather conditions ripe for sparking outdoor wildfires in the state, forecasters said.

A large area northwest of Las Vegas, including Esmeralda and Nye counties, will be in a fire weather watch from Wednesday morning through Wednesday evening because of strong winds and low humidity, the weather service said.

An unseasonably strong area of low pressure will move toward northern California on Wednesday, bringing increasing southwest winds and dry air to southern Nevada, the weather service said.

Wind gusts around 35 mph are expected Wednesday afternoon, along with relative humidities below 15 percent, creating critical fire weather conditions, forecasters said.

The fire weather watch could be expanded to include more of southern Nevada Wednesday and be extended through Thursday, the weather service said.

For the Las Vegas Valley, today's high of 106 is slightly above the normal temperature of 104 for today's date. The record high for this date is 116 degrees, set in 1979.

Forecasters say Tuesday and Wednesday will bring highs of 106 degrees to the valley.

But cooler weather is moving in Thursday, with 103 for the high, and Friday, which will have a high of 95, the weather service said.

Rainfall below normal for July

The weather service said there were seven days during July were thunder was heard at McCarran.

The average for the month is 3.8 days and the record is nine days set in 1952 and 2006, the weather service said.

Despite more days of thunder, total precipitation at McCarran was 0.29 of an inch, which is 0.15 of an inch below normal, the weather service said.

However, rainfall totals in the valley varied considerably for the month, the weather service said.

For example, a rain gauge in east Henderson recorded 1.02 inches of rain for the month. However, the wettest area was generally from the center of the valley north to the Aliante area, where totals in some places exceeded a half an inch, forecasters said.

The driest area was from the southern part of Summerlin to the Mountains Edge area where a few hundreths of an inch of rain fell at best and some neighborhoods saw no rain at all, the weather service said.

Rainfall amounts for the month included:

North Las Vegas Airport, 0.85 of an inch,

Carey and Lake Mead, 0.83 of an inch,

West Aliante, 0.83 of an inch,

Flamingo Wash at Eastern, 0.51 of an inch,

Centennial Hills, 0.35 of an inch,

NWS Las Vegas office, 0.29 of an inch,

Pittman and Pecos, 0.28 of an inch,

Downtown Las Vegas, 0.16 of an inch,

Rainbow and Oakey, 0.16 of an inch,

Summerlin, 0.04 of an inch.

July fourth warmest month

The weather service said July 2009 was the fourth warmest July on record at Las Vegas since records started being kept in 1937, with an average temperature of 94.7 degrees at McCarran International Airport.

The five warmest Julys, which are also the five warmest months on record, are:

1. 95.4 in 2007.

2. 95.3 in 2005.

3. 94.8 in 2003.

4. 94.7 in 2009.

5. 94.6 in 2003 and 2006.

The warm average temperatures in July were largely due to the warm low temperatures at night, the weather service said.

The average low temperature at McCarran for July 2009 was 83.4 degrees, which ranks as the third warmest on record for July, forecasters said.

The average low at McCarran has been above 80 degrees each July since 2002. By comparison, this July the average temperature at the North Las Vegas Airport was 80.3 degrees and at the weather service office was 81 degrees.

The low temperature at McCarran dropped to only 90 degrees on July 28, which was only the 16th time Las Vegas has recorded a low of 90 degrees or higher, the weather service said. All but three of those have been recorded since 2002.

Other area hot spots

--Needles, Calif. -- The weather service said this July was the third warmest July on record at Needles, Calif., where records date back to 1948, with an average temperature of 99.4 degrees. The warmest July was 100.7 degrees in 2005.

-- Death Valley, Calif. -- The average temperature for July 2009 was 105.2 degrees at the official weather station at Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park in California. That ranked as eighth warmest July on record and ties with July 2008. The warmest average temperature in July ever in Death Valley was 107 degrees set in 1917. Records there date back to 1911.

Also, there were eight days with a high temperature of 125 degrees or higher in Death Valley during July 2009, including a high of 128 degrees on July 18, the weather service said.

This is the second greatest number of such days for any month and is exceeded only by July 1913, when there were 10 such days, the weather service said. That July holds the distinction of the all-time Death Valley record high of 134 degrees, which was recorded July 10, 1913.